POS 339439: 09122007

1
POS 339/439 09/12/2007

• Website.
• http//faculty.roosevelt.edu/erickson/courses/pos3
  39-439/
• Course status
• Books still available.
• Presentation and Paper Assignment 1 distributed.
• Presentation selection due 09/26.
• Paper Assignment 1 due 10/03.
• Course agenda.
• Current events.
• Discussion of concepts introduced by readings.
• Week in Terror.
• Two UBL/OBL videos (HVT 1) - transcript.
• Patraeus Report.
• Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
• House Foreign Affairs Committee.
• 9/11 Anniversary.

2

• Discussion question from syllabus.
• What are the different definitions of terrorism
  proposed or used by each author?
• How does Hewitt measure terrorist phenomena?
• Are these definitions objective or clouded by
  ideology or methodology?
• Application of discussion questions to UBL/OBL
  transcript.
• What concepts from the readings can be used to
  understand the content and effects of the UBLs
  message?
• What justifications for attacks on American
  targets is offered by UBL?
• Overall impressions from reading pages 2-3?

3

• Next Class September 19.
• Martin Discussion Box questions, Chap. 2 p. 70,
  Chap. 3 p. 105.
• Note any parallels between Gerges and Hewitt
  (e.g. importance of global and national
  political context see Hewitt p. 24-25, and 50.
• Lecture/Discussion Causes, Emergence and
  Motivations of Terrorism.
• Legitimacy and Illegitimacy.
• Legality and Illegality.
• Generalizable Theories.
• Levels of analysis.
• Micro, Meso, Macro.
• Actors.
• Structure vs. Agency, Temporality.
• Motivations.
• Cases (individual, small n, large n).